City Of Eternity (IC)

Isis sniffed her cup and winced. It stung her nose; there were Vampire prints smeared all over her glass. We’ll what could she expect, she was currently seated in The Planetarium- haven for the undead. “Wooo…” she let out a breath, pinched her nose, and downed her drink. Isis purred; the drink had managed to curl her toes and give her a split second of goose bumps. Pretty good, she thought to herself. Isis looked up and met Ricky’s gaze. Poor kid, he was dead on his feet.

Isis ran that boy thin sometimes; she had to constantly remind herself that he was a human and had a hard time keeping up. Rolling her shoulders back she nodded towards Ricky and then the door to indicate their departure, when he approached. He must have been standing there for a good minute before he started speaking, but the way her skin crawled and her temperature rose, she didn’t have to look at him to know what he was.

"Excuse me, ma'am." He said, politely. "You wanna hold it down to a dull roar over here? Our insurance doesn't cover patrons falling off of barstools due to improper usage."

Her lips quivered as her blood began to boil. Werewolves usually run on a higher temperature than the average human, so it takes a lot to get one inebriated. Before the Vamp addressed her directly, Isis had been riding on a nice little buzz. But her temperature rose so rapidly that all the alcohol in her system singed away in an instant; and now she was riding on pure rage. The beast started to peel its face back, and reveal it self...slowly.

Everything slowed down around her. The thief was snatched mid air, and the Vamp’s hand had slid uncomfortably close to her left cheek. The human’s back arched un-naturally when he was slammed against the bar; the slow crunch confirmed a few ribs were broken.
One, two,…threeto be exact.

The Vampire’s knuckle curled stretching the skin until it became translucent. She could count the veins on his fist. The thief’s mouth barely formed a word before his lip was sliced open by his own teeth. The skin on his face curled around the Vamp’s fist in a nauseating fashion. Finally, blood shot into the air, and everything sped up to its normal speed again. And the thief was escorted out of the building.

The crowd parted and Isis was faced with the head bouncer. Her eyes trailed up his body, as his mirrored the same primal habit: size your enemy up. When their eyes met, the air ignited with unseen electricity that shocked the both of them. He shivered and she did the same.
They were instinctively programmed to naturally repel each other.

Then he walked away.

Isis stood and began to walk forward until an arm encircled her waist and pulled her back. Ricky. “Let. Go.” She hissed. Her body was shaking intensely. She had been restrained way too many times this evening, and at this point she didn’t know if she would be able to control herself around Ricky.

But he must have known, because he released her. Stepping forward her boots thudded against the floor; this evening was over. She passed the Vampire bouncer and restrained the growl rumbling in her chest. “Leeches…” she muttered as she stepped out of the club. It had stopped raining, but the remains of the evening’s rainstorm dropped from the tops of the Arai Prime.

She circled the building, her head tilted back, eyes closed, letting the drops trickle onto her face. Shaking her hair loose, a wet strand stuck to her forehead and cheek. Her heart rate raced against her chest. There was no way she could go home like this…especially with Ricky sleeping in the next room.
Licking her lips she tasted the air…blood. Her ears twitched, in the distance she heard the shuffling of feet against slick gravel, and a whimper. Immediately her head snapped towards the source and her eyes narrowed into slits. The thief.

She didn’t even have to think, or stop herself, it was instant. All the pent up rage that had accumulated through out the evening erupted in a howl that shook the garbage dumpsters and froze the man in his tracks. He paled and slowly turned his body around. His eyes lifted and were only met with darkness…framed by a fence of sharp teeth.

~~~~~~~~~~

Isis sat nude in that alley way, her body shook from the normal tremors that always came after an intense transformation. Her soft skin glowed softly and her mind drifted in lazy waves. She was satisfied.

Her eyes roamed up and down the brick wall and she noted the shadows shifting on the ground. Dawn was approaching, she noted. Isis titled her head back and looked up, her wet lashes blinked when a small piece of paper landed on her cheek. Peeling it off her face, she immediately recognized it. She had about two at home, this was number there. This one said: “Does the sun still shine?”

These messages fell from the sky randomly. It had no name…just a faint scent. And with that scent, she identified with the anonymous author.

Pressing both palms against the wall behind her, she gave herself one quick push and she was up on her feet. Arching her back she stretched and rolled her shoulders back. Stepping lightly over the puddle and bloody tissue left at her feet, she grabbed the thief’s coat and swung it around her. It had a few tears and stains, but it was enough to keep her covered on her walk back home. Turning she slipped on the man’s boots, and exited it towards the street, rolling the small note between her fingertips.

I could still hear that incessant pounding. It just never ended. I felt like I was sitting inside of one of The Planetarium's woofers. I seriously considered setting the place on fire just so I could operate in this block with something like peace and quiet. That didn't last long though. Fire's draw attention. I just needed to finish up these last few jobs and I could head off to another sector for a while. Meet some new people... and, you know.... shoot them.

"You don't waste time, do you?" Crim said, still sounding like a wet razor blade. He sat back, sipping at something.

"Time is money..." I said, taking a slug of Jack and Coke. "Say, why are we always meeting up in bars? Do you have a problem? Something you wanna talk about?"

Baiting a guy like Crim was a dangerous game, but dangerous games were the best kind. Crim doesn't like to play games though.

"The job was done I trust?" he said. Crim was emotionless. He could have been seething. He could have been ordering a pizza. I loved screwing with this guy. It was like sleeping on the wrong end of a firing range.

"I'm sitting here, ain't I?" I sat back and lit a cigarette. "Your info was off, though. There was a freakin' party going on in that place. I had to slot like eight guys to get to him. If I was anybody else, I'd be asking for a bonus."

"Are you asking for a bonus?" he said, eyes just boring into me. "I picked you precisely because you can adapt. Because two targets or eight targets doesn't really matter to you. Was my choice a mistake?"

I put a hand up to stop him. "Not a mistake. And I did the job fine. Like I said, if I was anybody else. You might wanna keep that in mind for the next guy you hire out." I took a drag off my cigarette. All the fun was starting to fade out of this meeting. It was getting a little serious. I wanted it over with, I had places to be.

"Very well then. You remember I told you I had an important contract for you?" Crim's eyes seemed to twinkle as he spoke, like he was giving up something critical.

"I seem to remember something like that at our last meeting. You want me to slot the pope or something?" That would have been an interesting job. I've never been to Vatican City, but I'd love to take a crack at it.

"Not yet..." Crim said, and almost smiled this time. "No, someone a little less important... But probably almost as dangerous to you."

I was waited for him to pull out a dossier, but he didn't have anything for me. I took another drink and shrugged. "Well, I'm listening."

Crim was watching me, like he thought I was about to grow an extra head for him or something. Finally he shook his head. "We don't really have a lot on him. I'm going to need you to do a lot of the information gathering on this one. It will be... educational for you, Reno. I will, of course, have other less important jobs for you in the interim, but most of your work now will be intelligence. I will pay you five-thousand a day while you lay the ground work, and we'll negotiate your final fee after it's done."

It was all I could do not to whistle out loud. There was no telling how long I was going to be looking for information on this guy, and then the price for whacking him? It was gonna be vacation time. I took a long drink of whisky and nodded. "That sounds fair... More than fair. What can you tell me about him? A name? Species? I mean anything. Where does he work?"

Crim smiled at me now, and I suddenly wished that he hadn't. "He is a vampire. A very old vampire. Not the oldest in the city by far, but certainly among the oldest. He is a direct threat to my plans and I would consider it a personal favor to me if you were to make him go away."

"His name is Robert Schneider. And he works right here." Crim said, waving his hand out at the club we sat in, the club I so desperately wanted to burn down. Looking around, suddenly feeling very paranoid, I decided to order another drink.

Eternity recoiled at the sight, his eyes wide with fear and wonder. "I-I thought I was a human!" he woofed. His dog wagged its tail. "Hihihihihihi!" it barked. Eternity blinked.

'Thats one hyped-up dog!' he thought. He clambered back up to the mirror and found he was a russet colored wolf. He sniffed and was surprised how well he could smell. He jumped down and wandered around the house, finally just walking out the back door. He brought down a rabbit by pure instinct and ate it. He was oddly happy at the sound of fur tearing off the meat, but passed it off as wolf instinct.

Eternity spent the next few days as a wolf, and explored the city through the shadows. He was afraid, but mesmerized by his appearance and heightened senses. He padded through the city until he made his paws bleed, and his nose hurt from the smell. He wished he could be a human again, and that was what happened. He awoke a day later to find he was human again.

'A dream?' he thought, but saw dog fur on his bed so he knew he was indeed a werewolf. He sighed and vowed to be careful, and only go out of the house when he absolutely HAD to. He stuck inside a lot, but that didn't matter; he had an indoor 'park.' It was a very large room, completely covered in grass, complete with a small river, trees, and bushes. Scattered here and there were a few flowers. He loved to sit in this room and let the sun warm his pelt through the retractable roof.

He learned to live with being a werewolf, but he always felt something was missing. He missed his master and Trinity and 17... But he pushed it away and just tried to go on without them. He always searched, but to no end. He found not what was missing from him.

Remy set three orders of drinks on serving platters that were whisked away without a moment’s notice. After a quick look down the bar to check for orders he side stepped his way down making the straights, shots, on the rocks, sours and bitters that the horde before him clambered for. A few customers down Remy noticed a hand lingering in the air, to which he gave a long pause then continued with his orders. She lowered her hand as he approached, Remy got the feeling he was being measured up, and he crossed over and spoke to her as if he had come from the other side. Her head turned and she mumbled an order that he couldn’t hear, he leaned in a little to try to get her to say it again, but there was no response. “Alright, comin’ up.” He mixed some cola, a little top shelf whiskey with a small wedge of lime. “Der’ you go doll.” He said setting the glass in front of her. A few moments later Remy was back at the register dropping in cash and finishing out tickets. He closed the till after taking a deep breath and gave the clock a quick glance. “Hey Andre, I need to head out. See ya’ tomorrow.” Andre didn’t offer him much in the way of a response; he was attending to important business in a low cut corset. Before he made it to the door he saw Robert and shot him a peace out, Robert just nodded.
The walkways were dotted with small rain puddles and the buildings gave off an emerald green aura that was accented by neon signs. Remy gave the doorman a firm pat on the back to wish him a good night, what remained of it. “Tell your wife to stop calling me.” They shared a laugh as Remy walked away. Remy stretched as he waited for the lift to get to his level. He closed his eyes and listened to the city. The hum of the light ballast above him, the trill of the magnetic stasis emitters behind him, and the heavy clang of old systems long forgotten valiantly keeping at their given task. A metallic ding brought Remy back to himself, and he stepped into the lift. “Hey, wait up!” someone outside shouted. Remy put his foot out and stopped the door as a shorter man hurried into the lift. “Thanks…” Remy tapped his level into the console. “No problem, what level?” A fist smacked the stop panel as Remy looked over at the man. “Gimme yer wallet!” He looked off into nothingness for a moment to replay what the man had just said to him. Remy stood up and looked at him wondering if maybe the other passenger had too much to drink. “A medical level maybe?” The passenger brandished a pistol and leveled it between Remy’s eyes. Remy looked up at the lift’s ceiling and put his hands up. When he looked back down at the man he demanded his wallet. “Wallet! Now!” Remy spoke “Thank you Lord, and bless this meal we are about to receive.”